


Repeating Patterns

by meyari



Category: DCU - Comicverse, Smallville
Genre: Angst, Crack, M/M, Sex Pollen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-06
Updated: 2010-01-06
Packaged: 2017-10-05 21:54:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/46400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meyari/pseuds/meyari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Red Hood breaks into Lex's penthouse to kill him for his crimes Lex just sighs and offers him coffee.  The strange relationship that forms after that befuddles everyone including Jason and Lex.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Repeating Patterns

**Author's Note:**

> Post-Rift, Future Fic, crack concept, jealousy, anger, mood altering pollen, sibling rivalry, older/younger sexual relationships. And for anyone who's curious, in this 'verse Metropolis is across the bay from Gotham like in the comics, not in Kansas like in SV.

"Say goodbye, Luthor."

Lex turned and peered at the voice. It wasn't Superman's portentous tones. It was a growling voice that Lex didn't recognize. He raised an eyebrow at the man in a black leather jacket, jeans and a red full-face helmet that was pointing a gun at him. Red Hood. Odd. He couldn't remember having done anything to upset Red Hood.

"This is different," Lex said thoughtfully. "Did Superman send you or did you decide that I need to die for my 'crimes' entirely on your own?"

Red Hood seemed to pause before shifting his finger on the trigger. "Why would Superman send me? I can see for myself what you've done."

"What is it this time?" Lex sighed. "Seriously, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"The raid on LuthorCorp's labs today?" Red Hood snapped. "Your human experimentation?"

"That is a perfectly legal government contract," Lex snapped. "We were researching Alzheimer's cures! It's a FDA approved and regulated trial for God's sake! What is you people's problem? A company as big as LuthorCorp _can't_ be evil and survive."

"Seriously?" Red Hood asked. He moved his finger off of the trigger and let the gun move off of target on Lex's head.

"Yes, seriously," Lex said in his most scathing tone of voice.

"Huh. Surprised that you can get government contracts," Red Hood said almost thoughtfully. "Wouldn't have thought that you could with your history."

Lex huffed. "Think what you like but I'm not what everyone says I am."

Lex fumed as he stomped for the kitchen. Every single time Superman, no Clark, got it into his head that Lex was doing something wrong another of Lex's labs got destroyed. You'd think that Clark would be able to see that Lex had changed since their encounter at the Fortress but that was obviously beyond him. He only saw that Lex didn't do things Clark's way, so of course he was evil. At the very least Lex would have thought that Clark would have respected the number of people Lex employed. It didn't work that way. Of course, the branches of Lex's company dedicated to cleaning up after Superman's rampages certainly kept plenty of people employed so maybe Clark thought it all balanced out.

"Where are you going?" Red Hood asked.

"Coffee," Lex snapped. "If you're going to shoot, shoot. I don't care. I'm getting some coffee."

"Won't do you much good if you're dead," Red Hood commented almost conversationally.

"Doesn't matter," Lex said with a wrench of his heart at the truth that he hated to admit. "I'll be alive again before the coffee cools anyway. You want some?"

Total silence answered his offer, prompting Lex to turn and look at Red Hood. His lips twitched into an amused smirk. He didn't need to be able to see behind the helmet to know that Red Hood's jaw was dropped open and that he was staring at Lex. That was obvious from his posture that Lex had just shocked him beyond words.

"Are you serious?" Red Hood asked after a long moment.

"Quite," Lex said. "Superman's aware of it. Why do you think he never really tries to get me arrested? He's seen me die several times now and knows he'll never be rid of me."

"That almost sounds like he's killed you…" Red Hood said thoughtfully.

He tucked his gun into his jacket pocket and followed Lex into the kitchen as if he belonged in the penthouse. Given that Mercy and Hope hadn't shown up to escort him out he was more capable than Lex would have suspected from this little stunt. Maybe he had more intelligence that most of the superheroes out there, though that wasn't much of a challenge.

"Not exactly," Lex said as he got two mugs and poured them both coffees. "I did manage to nearly kill him when I was insane. This was before he was Superman. It resulted in my most serious death to date."

"What did you do?" Red Hood asked. He cocked his head to the side as if he were studying Lex with narrowed eyes.

"I destroyed the Fortress of Solitude and got impaled by one of the falling crystals," Lex said with a casual shrug. "It took a while to come back from that but the spring thaw and one of LuthorCorp's morgues did it. Fortunately it seems like the prolonged death reset my brain chemistry so that I was stable again. Nice perk. At least I know what to do now if I go off the rails again. Mercy and Hope will take care of it for me. I trust them to kill me properly if I go nuts in the future."

"You are seriously strange," Red Hood said. He cradled the mug of hot coffee in his hands while watching Lex.

"Says the man who looks like he's going to try and drink coffee through a helmet," Lex snarked.

"Just wondering if you had some rum for it," Red Hood snarked right back. "Straight coffee's a waste of time."

Lex chuckled. He rather liked someone able to come up with retorts that easily. He considered it. Clark would be mad at him for even having this conversation but that was hardly Lex's fault. He couldn't be held responsible for every two-bit assassin or nut job that came after him, no matter what Clark thought.

"If you're old enough to run around as a superhero then you're old enough for rum-spiked coffee," Lex said. "It's fully on your head if you're not. I take no responsibility for your underage drinking."

"Why the hell would you?" Red Hood snorted. "Fuck, I'm already a killer. Why would underage drinking be that big of a fucking deal?"

"You'd be surprised at the things that Superman lays at my feet," Lex sighed.

He led the way to the bar, adding a dollop of brandy to his coffee. Red Hood added a good shot of rum to his. They went to the couches. Lex took the right one that looked out over the city. Red Hood took the left one that let him look over the rest of the penthouse and see if anyone was coming at him. It seemed a perfect reflection of their respective worries.

"Watching for Superman?" Red Hood asked as he opened his helmet and set it aside.

"Always," Lex said. He chuckled. "Do you have another mask under that domino?"

"Nah, I figure two is enough," Red Hood said with a snide grin. "Most people never get close enough to try for the helmet but it happens sometimes. Anyone who gets close enough to this mask is either beyond my skills or getting seduced."

"I think I should be flattered," Lex said. "I'm not sure I want to know which you consider me to be."

He raised his cup of coffee in a mock toast that made Red Hood laugh and toast him back. They drank in silence. Lex allowed himself to relax for the first time all day. It was rather sad that the first chance he got to let go all damned week came with someone who'd decided that he needed to die. Or maybe it was just the way his life worked these days.

"Being dead sucks," Red Hood said after a moment.

"It does at that," Lex agreed. "You have experience with it?"

"The Joker beat me to death with a lead pipe and then blew me up," Red Hood said. His face went so stiff with rage that he looked a good decade older.

"…I think that beats being impaled with crystal," Lex said thoughtfully. "Your family did get vengeance for you?"

"No, my fucking adopted father decided that I wasn't worth killing over," Red Hood snarled.

He looked blackly furious which Lex thought was probably a good sign of what drove him these days. He made a mental note to investigate Red Hood and see what he was up to. Not that he intended to interfere but it was always good to be aware of what was going on around him. Besides, Clark probably would be angry about this little conversation tomorrow. Best to be prepared for whatever specious arguments of his 'evil' Clark threw at him.

"Hmm, sounds like a winner of a father," Lex said. He sipped his coffee. "My father forced electroshock therapy on me so that I would forget that he'd murdered my grandparents to get insurance money. Superman failed to save me from it. It made me forget about his powers too, so I suppose it was convenient for him."

Red Hood looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Lex raised an eyebrow right back at him, asking silently what his problem with that was. Red Hood shrugged and swallowed a big gulp of his coffee.

"You sound like former lovers," Red Hood said. "Every other thing you say is about Superman."

"No, he was underage and contrary to public belief I do have morals," Lex disagreed. "Besides, small town Kansas isn't kind to gays. I had no desire to be lynched. He was gorgeous before he got judgmental, though. Now he hates me so there's no point. I just wish he'd let it go."

"We're talking _Superman,_" Red Hood snorted. His smirk was nearly as nasty as Lionel's worst. "That's about as likely as Hell freezing over."

"Very true," Lex sighed. "Pity we're both immortal. I have centuries of this nonsense to put up with."

"Sucks to be you," Red Hood said, raising his mug in another toast.

"That it does," Lex said, toasting him back.

They finished their coffee in silence and then Red Hood picked up his helmet and put it back on his head. He stood, patting his pocket for the gun. Lex settled into the cushions of his couch. At least he'd gone for the stain resistant microfiber for this set of furniture. If Red Hood did decide to kill him it would be easy to clean up the blood.

"Good luck dealing with him," Red Hood said as he headed for the balcony.

"Good luck to you in your activities, whatever they may be," Lex said. He was pleasantly surprised when Red Hood left without whipping out the gun and shooting him. "Hmm, that went better than I would have expected. Ah well, time to do some research."

Lex gathered up the mugs and took them to the kitchen. He headed to his office next, settling down to see what he could find out about Red Hood's current activities. He also tried to find out about a Joker victim who had been beaten to death with a lead pipe, and any possible connections to Clark Kent or Superman. It might be nice to know exactly who he'd been talking with tonight.

+++++

Jason swung back onto Luthor's penthouse balcony. Getting through the security system had taken a hell of a lot more work this time than last time but it looked like he might as well not bothered hacking the system. The balcony window was shattered inwards and Superman was hovering in front of Lex with a glower on his face. Lex had a matching glower as he glared up at Superman.

Jason hung back, chuckling at the way Mercy and Hope glared at him from behind Lex. Lex and Superman might not have realized he was there but they sure as hell did. Good to know that they weren't totally incompetent. He wondered if they'd block his way if he tried to come back again later. Might be fun to do it just to see what they did. He didn't get many challenges outside of family anymore.

"This is a new low even for you, Luthor," Superman said in his 'gravely disappointed in you' tone of voice.

"What is it this time?" Lex snapped. "I swear, your expectations for me are worse than Atlas' burden."

"Providing alcohol to underage people?" Superman prompted as if Lex should know that Jason wasn't twenty-one yet.

"How the hell am I supposed to know if a random assassin is over age or not?" Lex demanded. "He came in here to kill me, not to socialize. I was supposed to demand that he show me his driver's license? Do you listen to yourself?"

Superman huffed at Lex, sending his jacket flying. Lex seemed to ignore it totally but both Mercy and Hope pulled weapons that had an eerie green glow around them. They pointed them at Superman who ignored their actions entirely. Jason growled and stomped into the penthouse. Glass crunched under his boots, making Lex and Superman look at him.

"The fuck?" Jason demanded. "What the hell is your problem, Supes? What I do is my business. Stay the hell out of it."

"I disagree," Superman said, his eyes shifting from bright blue to green as he looked at Jason. His face shifted too, revealing him as Clark. That made no difference. Jason already knew who he was and the less he thought about that little mistake the better. "Luthor should be held responsible for his crimes. He's corrupting a minor."

"Get off your goddamn high horse, Clark!" Jason snapped. He smirked inside of his helmet at the way Clark started and Lex's raised eyebrow. "I've got beer in my fucking fridge and it's no business of yours if I drink it or not. You object to my having a drink but not to my blowing his fucking head off?"

"Wouldn't do any good," Lex said with a calm shrug.

Clark huffed again, making Jason's jacket flap in the breeze. He looked really annoyed at Lex, which just pissed Jason off even worse. What the fuck was with him? Why blame Lex for something that Jason did? Jason had to wonder how much crap Lex took the blame for that had absolutely nothing to do with him.

"You blame him, right?" Jason demanded. "I took a fucking drink and you blame him for it."

"He provided the alcohol," Clark began.

"And I fucking drank it!" Jason shouted. "You asshole, don't you dare fucking blame anyone else for what _I_ do! This is my fucking life and they're my goddamned decisions. I don't let fucking Bruce tell me what to do so don't you dare try and do it either!"

Lex rocked back a little on his heels, raising an eyebrow at Jason's explosion. Clark winced, waved his hands and opened his mouth again. He had that 'going to deliver a sermon' expression of his, the one that had always annoyed Jay when he'd been Robin. Jay growled and his shoulders went hard as rock from sheer rage.

"Shut the fuck up!" Jason snapped. "Yo! Gimme one of those!"

He pointed an imperious finger at Mercy and Hope. Mercy glared at him so fiercely that Jason was half tempted to pat himself down for wounds. He snapped his fingers at them. Hope glanced at Mercy. She looked at Jason and then nodded. Hope tossed her glowing green gun at Jason. Jason whipped it around and fired it squarely in Clark's chest.

"Aaah!" Clark cried out, collapsing to the broken glass covered floor in pain.

"Nice," Jason said. "Not very lethal."

"I prefer not to make lethal weapons," Lex said. His head was cocked to the side as he studied Jason with a faint frown. "Brings far too much trouble from the League. It's part of why LuthorCorp's gotten out of government weapons research."

"You may not like lethal weapons," Jason said as he rooted through his pockets and started jury-rigging the gun to be far more dangerous, "but I do. There. That's better. That should do some serious damage. And before you even think of heating it, I think you know what this is."

He tossed the case of the nasty little device he'd stolen from Bruce at Clark. Clark went pale as he recognized it and the damage it could cause if he heated it or jarred it too badly. He looked up at Jason with his eyes huge in a white face. Jason stepped over and put the gun to Clark's forehead. He set his finger on the trigger.

"Fuck off, Clark," Jason said. "Who I choose to talk to is my choice. What I choose to do is my choice. If I choose to drink that's my choice too. Don't you _ever_ blame someone else for what I am, unless it's your fucking best buddy Bruce. You know exactly why I am the way I am and why I do what I do. Lex has nothing to do with it."

"Why are you back then?" Clark whispered. He was shaking very slightly.

"A valid question," Lex commented. He sounded tense but Jason didn't turn his head to look at him.

"To see if I could break in again," Jason said with a little shrug. "Because I wanted to. That's all the fucking reason I need. Well, also to see if I could get past his Amazon bitches over there."

Clark nodded fractionally and swallowed as if he was so nervous that he couldn't breathe. He had every right to be. Jason was perfectly calm. The anger had drained away once he put the gun to Clark's head. He'd have no problem at all pulling the trigger and blowing Clark's stupid head off if he didn't do exactly what Jason wanted. He knew he was fucked in the head. Times like this showed him more clearly than anything that he was. There just wasn't much to do about it.

"Mercy, Hope, see to it that Jason can enter whenever he wishes," Lex sighed.

"Hey!" Jason protested. He glared at Lex who glared right back. "No fair!"

"If you want to challenge them, do it in the training room downstairs," Lex snapped. "Stop cutting the wires and messing with the computer system."

"Oh. Okay," Jason nodded. "That works. Now get up off the floor, Clark. Get your butt out of here and for fuck's sake, learn how to open a door. I know you were raised in a barn but that's no excuse for breaking people's houses up when you want to have a little chat."

Clark's lips went thin but he didn't say anything as he carefully stood. Jason kept the gun trained on Clark, fully prepared to kill him if he didn't leave. Clark looked at Lex and opened his mouth to say something. Lex rolled his eyes and sighed as if he already knew the lecture he was about to get.

"Oh shut it, Clark," Jason snapped. "Get the fuck out already. No one here is going to listen to you anyway."

Clark winced at Jason's words. He carefully stepped back and then left with a last fierce glare at Lex. Even if he didn't say it, it was obvious that he blamed Lex for all of this. Jason growled, pulling off his helmet to glare out the broken window after Clark's bright red cape. It disappeared into the night.

"What the fucking hell was his problem?" Jason snarled.

"Do please let us put that thing away," Lex said, pointing at Jason's jury-rigged gun. "I'm somewhat worried about what it could do."

"Blow up the entire block and destroy the building down to the foundations," Jason said with a casual shrug. "Would only have blow up the top three floors before I mixed my stuff with your kryptonite gun."

"Give it to Mercy," Lex said, urgency in his voice and eyes though his face was as calm as ever.

Jason shrugged again and let Mercy take the gun. She frowned and then damn near cooed at what he'd done. Jason decided that there was nothing in the universe scarier than Mercy Graves drooling like _that_over a weapon. Hope peered at it with just as much fascination. They left the room, only to be replaced by a crew of clean up people and construction workers with replacement glass for the window that Clark had broken.

"Over here," Lex said. He gestured for Jason to follow him off to the side where they'd be out of the way.

Jason scraped the broken glass out of his boot treads before joining Lex. Lex's people had the clean up to a fine art. The glass was scraped up and then the remaining slivers were vacuumed away while one set of workers prepped the new window and another set removed the broken frame. An inspector nodded approval at the frame, watching as the new pane of glass was set in place. They had everything fixed, down to stripping the cushions off of the couches and vacuuming up all the stray glass, in less than five minutes.

"That was a work of fucking art," Jason said as everyone filed out.

"Happens at least three times a week," Lex sighed. "Coffee?"

"Rather have a beer," Jason sighed.

"I've already gotten one lecture," Lex snapped. "I don't need another."

"He fucking lectures you again and I'll make both him and Bruce pay for it," Jason promised.

Lex looked at him thoughtfully for a long moment before shrugging. He led the way to the kitchen, offering Jason a bottle of imported, really fucking high quality beer. Jason crooned and took it like the gold it was. It sure as hell beat the cheap crap he kept in his fridge.

"Oh hell yeah," Jason said reverently. "That's what I'm talking about. What else do you have in there?"

"Food," Lex laughed quietly. "I cook most of my own meals."

Jason stared at Lex with the bottle of beer halfway to his lips. "You can cook?"

Lex snorted and pulled a variety of containers from the fridge. He headed to the stove, pulled out a pan, some tongs and a bottle of olive oil. Jason leaned against the counter and watched as Lex started making something that smelled good before he'd even gotten it started cooking.

"Of course I can cook," Lex said once the ingredients for whatever it was were in the pan and sizzling nicely. "I've been poisoned too many times. I learned to cook for sheer survival, not to mention that restaurant food is notoriously unreliable. At least if I make it I know who to blame if it's not acceptable."

"Huh," Jason grunted. "Wouldn't have thought of it that way. Am I gonna get some of that?"

Lex turned at looked at Jason with an amused, almost fond smirk. "Of course. I'm making more than enough for two."

"Cool. I'll have to bring pizza next time. You know, return the favor."

Jason grinned at Lex's rolled eyes. Yeah, he would have to come back. Lex was too much fun to snark at and he did want to see how he'd do against Mercy and Hope. Not to mention that it would annoy Bruce and Clark. That was reason enough to do it.

+++++

Jason did come back. He came back two days later with four huge pizzas from what he claimed was his favorite pizza parlor. After Lex tasted a piece the opinion was quite understandable. They were excellent. When Lex checked the place out the next day it was a little dive that had two cracked tables, chairs that wobbled and the best pizza and lasagna that Lex had ever tasted. He barely resisted the urge to buy the place. It would annoy Jason if his personal pizza god became a chain.

Three days after that there was another visit, this time with cursing and hard liquor. Then one day. Than two, then five, then three, then seven. Eventually Lex built a chart, trying to map out when Jason would appear. There didn't appear to be any pattern to his visits until he mapped in the times that Lex reached out to Jason in one way or another.

Lex hadn't thought that he'd been quite that obvious about his efforts to ensure that Jason didn't do something stupidly self-sacrificing but seeing the cold hard data made it perfectly clear that he was. Lex had made a point of buying Jason's apartment complex when his landlord threatened to evict him. He'd arranged to have the building renovated after he discovered just how horrendously dangerous the wiring and heating systems were.

He'd cleaned up two neighborhoods around LuthorCorp properties after Jason passed on a casual tip during a visit that he'd been doing a lot of 'business' near them. He'd also fired all of the security personnel in those properties after discovering that they were taking bribes to allow the illegal activity to occur on LuthorCorp property. It was no wonder that Lex had a bad reputation if that sort of thing was occurring.

Between Jason's visits and Lex's light supervision of his life, they were interacting in one form or another every single day. If either of them missed a day the other would find some reason to reach out. Lex stared at the graph and started laughing.

"Sir?" Hope asked. Her face when she poked her head into the room was a little spooked.

"No, it's nothing, Hope," Lex chuckled as he wiped his eyes. "Just realized that I'm being an idiot _again_. I thought I got over that with Clark."

"Oh, Jason." Hope nodded entirely too calmly. "Mercy owes me a cheesecake. She didn't think you'd figure it out for another week."

"You're fired," Lex huffed as his cheeks went flamingly red. It was bad enough that he was shockingly oblivious to the workings of his heart. His staff didn't need to rub it in by placing bets on when he'd wise up.

"Yes sir," Hope laughed. "Your first appointment is on his way up. Should I send him in?"

"Yes," Lex sighed. "Go on. Collect your cheesecake."

Hope grinned at him and disappeared out into the other office. Lex thought about the graph and what it revealed throughout the day. He knew that he tended towards obsessive stalking. He'd been aware of that pattern of behavior since he was quite young. He knew that he tended to like intelligent, powerfully muscled younger men and highly intelligent, driven women. His luck with both had always been spectacularly bad. It was still somewhat disturbing to realize that he appeared to be falling in love with a young man who was at least ten years his junior and he hadn't realized it until he'd started logging data points.

"I am such a geek," Lex murmured as they drove from the office home.

He ignored Mercy's smirk and Hope's stifled giggles in the front seat. They ignored him, which was probably better for everyone involved. It had been a long day and Lex still hadn't had dinner yet. When they were a mile from home Hope suddenly cocked her head, resting a hand against her earpiece.

"Sir, I'm getting a report of a battle Poison Ivy and Red Hood on the edge of one of our plants," Hope said. Her tone was all business now.

"Let's go," Lex said, nodding approval. "Call the police and the Justice League and tell them about it. I don't want to be blamed for working with that woman."

"Yes sir."

By the time they got there the League was already mopping things up. The fire department was doing a stellar job containing the mutant ivy plant that appeared to be trying to tear down one of his buildings, though it looked like the damage would be catastrophic. The roof had caved in, destroying the facility inside. Lex sighed and called in his clean up crews. Hopefully they would be able to get the factory up and running again before he lost too many employees to other jobs.

Superman did his normal pontificating at Lex. Lex snarled back at him about being the victim, not an accomplice. Batman was icy and furious but his newest Robin was nowhere to be seen, prompting the League to go looking for him. Lex snorted and went looking for Red Hood as none of the heroes seemed to care that he might have been harmed as well. His irritation at their lack of concern for Jason's well being was tempered by the knowledge that he was concerned for more personal reasons. A half hour's search that led them to an alleyway that was marked by a trail of blood and sparkly pollen streaks on the walls.

"So this is where you ended up," Lex said.

"Heeeeey, Lex…" Jason had taken off his helmet at some point, which was probably quite wise.

It looked to be completely coated in the pollen. He beamed up at Lex with the most open, gregarious expression that Lex had ever seen on the young man. He almost literally lit up as Lex knelt down next to him. Lex carefully pulled on rubber gloves. The less the pollen was spread around the better.

"How do you feel?" Lex asked as he worked with Hope to bag up Jason's helmet for transport. He made sure that the girls had masks on to protect them against the pollen but didn't bother for himself. He no longer had allergic reactions to anything.

"I feel fiiiiiiiiiiine," Jason said, slurring his words as if he was drunk, stoned and about to collapse. "Jus' fine. Doesn' hur' a bit."

Lex looked down and sighed. Jason's hand was pressed over a gunshot wound on his thigh that was also covered in pollen. They bandaged his thigh with Jason's overly enthusiastic and completely uncoordinated help. Once Jason was no longer in danger of bleeding to death Lex half-carried Jason to his car so that Mercy and Hope wouldn't be infected. He made a mental note to get the pollen removed from his car tomorrow.

"Ya know, you go' really nice eyes," Jason commented as Lex buckled him in. "Don' usually notice things li' tha' but ya do."

"Mmm-hmm," Lex murmured, amused despite the way Hope was laughing in the front seat.

"An' I'd really like ta lick tha' scar on yer lip," Jason continued, slurring his words worse as he spoke.

"Tomorrow," Lex said, settling into his seat. He stiffened and then sighed as Jason slumped sideways to rest his head on Lex's shoulder.

"Why do I gotta wait?" Jason pouted. "Don' like waiting."

"You can't sit up straight," Lex explained. He could hear the fondness in his voice and rather hoped that Jason wouldn't remember in the morning. The second after that he hoped that Jason would remember it. "We'll talk about it tomorrow, Jason. Let's get you cleaned up and then tucked into bed for some sleep."

"Wanna sleep wi' you."

Lex didn't get the chance to reply to that before Jason started snoring on his shoulder. He wasn't sure that he'd be able to come up with a retort to that that didn't involve tearing both of their clothes off. Mercy's eyes were somewhere between appalled and amused when Lex looked at her reflection in the rearview mirror. Hope pulled out her cell phone and snapped a picture of the two of them in the back seat.

"You're really fired for that," Lex snarled at her. He wrapped a protective arm around Jason before he realized what he'd done.

"Evidence, sir," Hope said with a wicked little.

She showed him the picture of Jason sprawled out on the back seat. Most of Lex's face and body had been cut out of it. He looked exhausted and completely content, with a sweet little smile on his face that made him look years younger than his age. Lex's heart lurched a little at that smile. He sighed. They truly knew him far too well. He wondered how much Hope would charge him for the picture later on.

"All right, so you're not fired," Lex allowed, "but don't let anyone get that picture."

"No sir." Hope went back to snickering in the front seat.

They managed to get all of the pollen off of Jason and to fix his wound before he stirred at all. He barely woke as Lex maneuvered him into the guest bed and tucked him in. Lex spent the night analyzing the pollen and came up with an effective antidote as well as the proper recuperative therapies for people hit by it. Bruce was rather stiff when Lex called him but he did say thank you for the information. Lex made a note of that on his calender. It seemed like something worthy of remembering.

"Here," Lex said as Jason woke the next morning.

"Oh fucking hell, kill me," Jason groaned. He peeked at Lex and groaned louder at the aspirin and warm milk that Lex held out to him. "The fuck is that?"

"It will eliminate the headache and help you get over the exhaustion and nausea," Lex explained. "If you drink it all you get steak, eggs, bacon, ham, and sausage for breakfast."

Jason went very still as Lex recited the breakfast menu. After a long moment he shuddered and sat up. He swallowed the aspirin dry. He took one sip and nearly spit it across the bedroom.

"Milk?" Jason snarled. "_Warm_ milk? The fuck are you thinking?"

"The amino acids will bind with the remnants of the pollen and render them harmless," Lex explained. "That's why you're getting a meat-lover's breakfast. It should make you feel better much more quickly."

"You better not be pulling my chain," Jason grumped. He drank the milk as quickly as possible, shuddering once he was done. Within a few seconds he started looking better, if grumpy about the improvement. "Fuck. So what the hell happened?"

Lex got Jason's breakfast tray from the side table and brought it over. Jason immediately started eating like he hadn't been fed in the last decade. Mercy appeared at the door. She raised an eyebrow at Lex and nodded at Jason.

"I think he'll be all right, Mercy," Lex said. "What is it?"

"Timothy Drake is here to see him, sir," Mercy said. "Shall I allow him in?"

"Of course," Lex nodded. "They are brothers."

"Why would I want to see that twerp?" Jason grumbled around a too-big bite of bacon.

"I would presume that he's bringing news of your youngest brother, Damien," Lex said with a shrug. "He was affected by Ivy's pollen too."

Jason stopped to stare at Lex with wide eyes. He started snickering and went back to eating. When Tim came in it was quite obvious that he expected to either see Jason in bondage or them plotting something evil. He stared at the perfectly ordinary bedroom and Jason eating in a relatively normal, if hungry, way with an expression that made Lex think that Tim was a bit spooked by it all.

"Um, Bruce asked me to check on Jason and to say thank you for the cure for the pollen," Tim said carefully. "It's helped quite a bit with Damien."

"So the demon spawn did get hit, did he?" Jason asked. "How'd he react? I remember being way too happy with the world but that's about it."

"He got… huggy," Tim said very carefully.

His lips started twitching as he pulled out his cell phone, calling up a picture. He passed the phone to Jason who looked at it and started laughing. Jason passed the phone to Lex. Tim looked like he wanted to snatch it back but he stayed still and watchful on his side of the bed. Lex didn't allow himself to sigh at the blatant lack of trust. Tim obviously believed Clark's protestations that Lex was the sum of all evil.

"He looks like a reasonably normal child," Lex commented. The picture showed a dark haired boy beaming while hugging Alfred with obvious delight. Lex passed the phone back to Tim who took it with quiet relief.

"After I snapped this Damien tried to kill me but he was giggling too hard to be effective," Tim explained.

"There's a reason I call that brat the demon spawn," Jason said. "He's a fucking assassin, grandson of Ra's Al Ghul. He's convinced he's the best thing in the whole world. He's the biggest pain in the ass _ever!_"

"I actually agree with Jason on that," Tim said. He tucked his phone away and shrugged. "Damien's… difficult."

"Picture Lionel with Jor-El's attitude of superiority in a half-pint body armed with every sort of deadly weapon you can think of," Jason explained.

Lex had a fair amount of difficulty picturing that combination of personality traits. After a moment he shuddered, looking at Tim with a great deal more understanding of why they both had found it humorous for Damien to have hugged under the influence. A mini-Lionel hugging everyone in sight while giggling was enough to give Lex nightmares. He supposed for everyone else it would be hilarious.

"Makes me wonder how Jason reacted," Tim said. He edged just far enough away that Jason couldn't hit him without disturbing his tray of food.

"He was… genial," Lex said. "Cheerful, smiling, delighted to see everyone. Also rather tactile though Jason didn't indulge in hugging."

"No, really?" Tim asked, staring at Lex.

"No fucking way," Jason huffed.

"Hope has a picture," Lex said. He smirked and raised his eyebrow at Jason angry growl.

"Um, I should be going," Tim immediately said, standing and edging towards the door. "I'll just…"

"Hope should be in the other room," Lex told him just to hear Jason squawk.

Tim ran out while laughing. Jason threw a pillow after him while shouting obscene threats against his health and wellbeing. Lex chuckled, waiting until the door shut. Jason grumbled until he realized that Lex was watching him with his best no-expression face on.

"What?" Jason asked.

"You also said that I have beautiful eyes, that you wanted to lick my scar and that you wanted to sleep with me," Lex said in his most neutral voice. "I said that we'd talk about it in the morning."

Jason's eating stuttered to a stop. His cheeks went slowly redder and redder until he was nearly glowing from the force of his blush. He didn't look up at Lex. In fact, his eyes were locked on his plate as if he was determined to never look up again for all eternity. Lex smirked. He was glad to see that he wasn't the only one who'd been smitten by a surprise infatuation.

"I made a spreadsheet recently," Lex said in his most casual tone of voice while looking out the window. "It was quite revealing. The first data set was completely random. The second set appeared completely random as well but when they were mapped onto each other there was a surprising level of symmetry in them. The two factors appeared to be very tightly linked."

"This is relevant how?" Jason asked. He was poking at the remnants of his breakfast with his fork while rubbing his injured leg.

"I'd done that once before," Lex continued as if Jason hadn't spoken. "It was revealing that time as well, though unfortunately the outcome wasn't what I'd hoped. Despite the apparently predictive power of the charts the result left a great deal to be desired."

Jason finally looked up at Lex, glaring at him as if he was speaking Greek. Lex looked sidelong at him and smirked. Jason huffed, crossing his arms on his chest in a fairly obvious declaration that he wasn't going to ask, no matter how Lex teased him. The seriousness of his wordless declaration left something to be desired since he still had his knife and fork clutched in his fists.

"Not going to ask?"

"Hell no." Jason raised his chin defiantly but Lex could see the curiosity eating at him.

"Fine."

Lex let the silence stretch for a long minute and a half. Jason got progressively twitchier until Lex finally laughed, grinning openly at him. He shrugged and then sighed. Hopefully Jason wouldn't find it too much like stalking. It wasn't as though Lex had dedicated a room of the penthouse to mementos of his interactions with Jason. He hadn't even kept the jury-rigged gun once they'd figured out how to design it to be stable.

"The first spreadsheet I created mapped my and Clark's interactions," Lex explained. "That, sadly, was how I figured out that I wasn't just lusting for Clark. I actually cared deeply about him. Unfortunately I figured it out far too late and our relationship was already in shambles. It's never recovered."

"You are a bigger geek that Timmy," Jason snickered. "You have to create spreadsheets to figure out that you're falling in love? That's pathetic!"

"You had to get hit by drunkenness pollen to admit that you find me attractive," Lex snorted. "I don't think either of us are prizes in that department."

Jason shrugged and went back to poking at his plate. Lex let him do it, watching and waiting. Jason didn't have the patience or self-control to resist speaking for very long, especially now that Lex knew about the attraction. After thirteen pokes and one long slide of the last bite of sausage around the plate on the end of Jason's fork, Jason froze and went pale.

"Those bitches heard, didn't they?" Jason said. He stared into Lex's eyes with horror.

"Yes." Lex nodded.

"_Timothy Drake!_" Jason bellowed as he shoved the tray off to the side and started to try and get out of bed. "If you tell anyone I'll skin you alive!"

Hope and Tim's laughter echoed from the other room. Jason scrambled to his feet and limped out into the other room. He didn't appear to notice that he was wearing a borrowed pair of Lex's purple silk boxers and nothing else. Lex laughed softly as a flash went off the instant Jason barged through the door.

Mercy kept Jason from killing Tim. Hope got him out of the penthouse. Lex waited until Jason had collapsed on the couch before coming to sit next to him with a pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt that should fit. Jason grumbled as he put on the clothes.

"Not even interested in me," Jason finally muttered.

"If I wasn't interested in you I'd have ordered Mercy and Hope to damage you badly enough that you couldn't return," Lex said.

"I'm a kid compared to you," Jason said a little hopefully. Lex thought he might be going through all the reasons he'd used to keep from saying anything.

"True. I'm a good ten years older than you," Lex agreed. "I'm rich and powerful. You're poor. I'm well educated. You're not. I'm elegant. You're rough-edged. I'm officially a villain. You're at least supposed to be a hero. Neither of us have any successful relationships. It's doomed to disaster and the world is going to come to an end if either of us dares to be happy. Have I covered everything yet?"

Jason grinned wickedly. "You left out the one about how everyone will flip out."

"That's a reason to do it, not a reason to hold off," Lex disagreed. "Besides, I would assume that everyone believes that we're already involved. That would explain the latest series of lectures Superman's given me."

"Yeah, that's true," Jason laughed.

He looked at Lex with that wild, reckless grin. Lex started moving at the same time Jason did. He rather expected that Jason would immediately attempt to pin him but the first kiss was surprisingly tender and hesitant. Lex shivered, trying to entice Jason into being a bit bolder by licking his bottom lip.

"Fuck yes," Jason whispered.

He grabbed Lex's shoulders, pulling him closer. Lex went willingly, all but climbing into Jason's lap as the kiss went from tender to desperately urgent. He heard a door open in the background but it closed again just about the time Jason's fingers curled around the back of Lex's head. They were both panting by the time they were able to stop kissing.

"Clark will be here any second I'm sure," Lex whispered.

"I'll shoot him," Jason promised while nibbling at the scar on Lex's lip.

"Do," Lex groaned and slid a hand down into Jason's shorts.

"Yes!" Jason gasped.

It took a fair amount of creativity given Jason's injured leg but their respective misspent youths allowed them to work around it to a mutually satisfactory conclusion that left Lex sweaty and Jason moaning happily. Jason held Lex close, looking out the window at Metropolis.

"You have to go to work?" Jason asked.

"I'm the CEO," Lex snorted. "If I choose to be late to work there's no one to reprimand me. I'd be willing to bet that Mercy and Hope already cancelled my appointments for the day."

"You need to pay them more." Jason hugged Lex so tight that his ribs protested. "This isn't a dream, is it?"

Lex let his fingers trail down to the wound on Jason's thigh. He brushed it just hard enough to make Jason jump. Lex raised an eyebrow. The impact was apparently lost when you were lying nose to nose on a couch after having made love. Jason just snorted.

"I've never had a happy life," Jason admitted.

"Neither have I," Lex said with a tiny shrug. He traced the muscles on Jason's stomach. "Let's take the moments of happiness we get. There's no way to know how long it will last."

"Works for me," Jason said. "When it all goes to hell I promise not to lecture you endlessly. I'll just shoot you with something nicely explosive that will atomize you and end the suffering."

Lex snickered and began kissing Jason's neck. Jason groaned, kneading his fingers into the tight muscles of Lex's shoulders. That led to round two, which was more than enough on the couch as far as Lex was concerned. They moved to Lex's bedroom for round three. That was considerably more comfortable. A king sized bed allowed a great deal more room for maneuvering. Lex smiled and nuzzled Jason's hair after they were done.

"I promise not to beat you to death and then blow you up," Lex said once they'd cooled enough to need the blankets again. "Though I might find it necessary to wreak terrible vengeance on anyone who attempts to harm you."

"I can live with that," Jason said. His voice was muffled against Lex's chest. "No other promises?"

"No, one more," Lex said. He waited until Jason raised his head to look at him. "I promise not to be boring."

"Me too," Jason said. He grinned his wild, wicked grin. "So what are your feelings about bondage and floggings?"

"Dishing out or receiving?" Lex asked with a matching wicked grin.


End file.
